Hindu Tales From the Sanskrit

Delightful classic stories from

ancient India. Includes questions after each chapter to enhance

understanding and help readers apply the lessons learned. 
Hindu mythology is large body of traditional narratives related to Hinduism as contained in Sanskrit literature Ancient Tamil literature several other works, most notably the Bhagavata Purana, claiming the status of a Fifth Veda and other religious regional literature of South Asia. As such, it is a subset of mainstream Indian and Nepali culture. Rather than one consistent, monolithic structure, it is a range of diverse traditions, developed by different sects, people and philosophical schools, in different regions and at different times, which are not necessarily held by all Hindus to be literal accounts of historical events, but are taken to have deeper, often symbolic, meaning, and which have been given a complex range of interpretations.

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(Excerpt)

Thanks to Mr. S. M. Mitra, the well-known

Hindu psychologist and politician, who has done so much to draw more

closely together the land of his birth and that of his adoption, I am

able to bring within reach of English children a number of typical

Hindu Tales, translated by him from the Sanskrit, some of them culled

from the ancient classics of India, others from widely separated

sources. The latter have hitherto been quite inaccessible to western

students, as they are not yet embodied in literature, but have been

transmitted orally from generation to generation for many centuries.

These

tales are not only of a kind to enchain the attention of children.

They also illustrate well the close affinity between the two chief

branches of the great Aryan race, and are of considerable ethical

value, reflecting, as they do, the philosophy of self-realisation

which lies at the root of Hindu culture. They have been used from

time immemorial by the best teachers of India as a means of building

up the personalities of the young and maintaining the efficiency of

the adult. They serve in fact as text-books of the unique system of

Mind-Training which has been in use in India from remote Vedic times,

the root principle of which is as simple as it is effective.

Hindu

children become familiar at their mothers' knees with these stories,

and are trained to answer questions on them, subtly chosen to suit

their ages and call into action their mental faculties. Appealing to

them as an amusing game, in which they vie with each other in trying

to solve the problems presented for their consideration, the boys and

girls, who are educated together till they are ten or twelve years

old, early learn to concentrate their attention; whilst the

simultaneous development of all their powers is encouraged and they

are, imperceptibly to themselves led to control their thoughts and

emotions from within, instead of having to obey orders which they do

not understand from without. They realize indeed, whilst still in the

nursery, the ideal suggested by the sage Vidura in the Mahabharata:

"Seek to know thyself by means of thyself, keeping thy mind,

intellect and senses, under control; for self is thy friend as it is

also thy foe."

About the Author: Siddha Mohana Mitra born in 1856 and died in 1925 Siddha Mohana Mitra was born in 1856 and died in 1925. He was of

Hindu-Bengali origin and had lived in Hyderabad for a number of years.

Mitra had been editor of the Deccan Post.


From the begining of the twentieth century, Mitra wrote a number of

books, published in London, on India. He was a regular contributor to

the Asiatic Quarterly Review. He was a member of the Royal Asiatic

Society and met a number of high-ranking Anglo-Indian officials. His

book, Indian Problems, cited by Lord Curzon in a House of Lords debate

in 1912 revealed Mitra's argument that the partition of Bengal had not

had a detrimental effect on the region. George Birdwood wrote an

introduction to this book, and encouraged Mitra to publish his work of

fiction, Hindupore.